Bajan PM eases squeeze for pensioners

Mia Mottley
Mia Mottley

(Barbados Nation) Prime Minister Mia Mottley has thrown a lifeline for pensioners feeling the squeeze under Barbados’ domestic debt restructuring programme.

On Tuesday, she announced that pensioners 60 years and over who had matured Government savings bonds would get a lump sum of $20 000 “in cash” tomorrow and a further $30 000 by March next year.

Overall, Government would ensure that those with up to $250 000 invested recoup their money in four years, slashing the uncertain 15-year period that was first announced.

“In March next year, we will come again and give them another payout and we hope to pay them another $30 000. We are also going to take the rest of their holdings to the extent that they have up to $200 000 in debt. We will transfer $200 000 of that 15-year-instrument into a four-year bond which will amortise monthly,” Mottley said in an interview with moderator David Ellis on Starcom Network’s Down To Brass Tacks.